The Closer is an American police drama starring Kyra Sedgwick, who plays a Deputy Chief of Police at the LAPD. Sedgwick plays Brenda Leigh Johnson, an ex-CIA interrogator. She is a southern belle and her easy going charm has surprised more than one criminal during an interrogation. She always gets the bad guys. She was put in charge of the Priority Homicide division of the LAPD.

She’s had to deal with conflict from Commander Taylor, chief of detectives, since she was promoted over him from the outside to her current position. This conflict has been resolved in season 4. Commander Taylor is now one of her staunchest allies. Her team are seasoned veterans, some close to retiring like Lt Provenza, others like Sgt Gabriel just a few years into their police careers. Daniels was promoted off the squad and this season, there is a new conflict with Captain Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell), who investigates any civilian deaths in officer involved shootings.

Her personal life wasn’t always as stable as it is right now. She’s currently engaged to an FBI Agent named Fritz Howard, who helps her from time to time on some cases. They’ve just sold Brenda’s bungalow and moved into a temporary space as they search for a new house to buy.

Brenda is a severe workaholic, to the sacrifice of her personal relationships. She tends to micro-manage her investigations and take a close look at details. She loves junk food and sweets but is currently trying to lay off them. She usually hides all types of junk food in drawers, purses, and other places. She is also known to be a “bit of a slob”, commenting that she does not often get around to housework every day in one episode, and in another, during a small argument between her and Fritz over where her mail was, Fritz comments that “if she looked at her mail daily instead of once a week, she would know where they keep it”.

The Closer is one of the best police dramas on television right now and is in its seventh season on TNT. Each summer sees 13 episodes. A feature length episode is shown over the holidays. For this season, the episode format has changed.

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I just read that this will be the last season of The Closer. The spin-off series adds another 6 episodes to the usual 15 of this year to lead into it. The spin-off will be called Major Crimes and will feature Captain Raydor. The decision to retire The Closer was made by Kyra Sedgwick. It’s too bad. I don’t like Raydor all that much. Still, Major Crimes has already been optioned for 10 episodes next summer. The theme for this season is love and loss.

A principal is gunned down. The principals I know don’t drive BMW 7.50iLs.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

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Raydor arrives at a crime scene. This can only mean one thing: an officer involved shooting. No, because of the federal lawsuit, they are being extra careful, dotting their I’s and crossing their Tee’s.

John Milton Reed is the vic. He’s a principal. Mrs. Reed called it in. She was on the phone when it happened. A car like the victims, a BMW 7.50Li was involved in another shooting. Someone has been shooting up silver BMWs.

The FBI is involved because someone took some potshots at a TSA agent. Fritzi is at the precinct. Raydor has been doing this for the last two months.

TNT asks if Captain Raydor has Deputy Chief Johnson’s back. There’s probably no one who has her back more than Raydor, even though it may come as a surprise since Raydor generates so much friction in the Major Case Squad.

The wife begged her husband to quit his job. He’s called in to clean up schools. His last school, Polk, was pretty bad. John kept a bunch of voice memos on his phone.

Raydor is pissed at having to audit the Chief’s cases. She takes it up with Pope and Taylor. Taylor says that she also has to find the leak. Raydor is thinking about quitting her job. Pope has to use Raydor because Major Crimes is run by a Deputy Chief and three lieutenants. Pope offers to make Raydor a commander when the promotions freeze is over. Raydor has had enough of being in IA.

The victim synced his iPhone with his MacBook Pro at work. The principal was changing the eligibly rules of who can play in the school sports. They now need to maintain a C average. This was a PTA meeting. Then he had a meeting with Rich, the football coach. Reed was going to transfer Rich out of the school. Reed implied that something was going on with the football team.

Reed wanted to put the kids on the team out on the street so that the GPA scores went up. Coach Carr has got a few bedrooms in his house. He lives alone. They find a bunch of teenage boys in the garage working out. It’s obvious what Carr was doing. He was giving the kids a place to stay. The cops think that the coach is a serial abuser.

Reed knew about the boys. That’s what he was going to tell the school board. They find a gun buried in the backyard. It’s the murder weapon. Carr invokes his right to counsel.

The boys weren’t abused. Now, Carr’s motive is looking diluted. Fritzi tells Brenda that Raydor is thinking about retiring. The gun in Carr’s backyard is registered to Terrence Miller. He did 5 years for a robbery with the same gun.

Miller ditched the gun at a stripper’s place before he went to jail. Miller is the father of one of the boys. He tries to do a runner, but he’s in a police station. He hasn’t really thought this through. Miller was babysitting the stripper’s kid. Lewis confesses to killing Reed. He says that he planned it and ingratiated himself to Reed. He’s only 15.
Raydor runs into Goldman at Carr’s place. He knows that she is planning on retiring and that she has a job offer. Sharon says that it was just a ploy to prove that there is really a leak in the LAPD Major Crimes Squad.